PKK/YPG terrorists abduct another child in Syria to force fighting

The PKK/YPG terrorist organisation kidnapped a 16-year-old boy from Malikiyye district in Syria's Hasakah province, which is under its control, to recruit him into its organisation.

Redor al Ahmed, spokesperson for the opposition Kurdish party 'Independent Kurdish Rabita', revealed on Wednesday that the terrorists have abducted A.F.H., a 16-year-old from Malikiyye.

Ahmed stated that the terrorist group is also preventing communication between the many youngsters it has kidnapped, including A.F.H., and their families.

Kidnapping is a common practice of the PKK, which lifts children and young people and detains them in so-called training camps for arms training.

The PKK/YPG terrorists had kidnapped a girl, S.A.M., on January 28, and a 13-year-old boy, M.A.N., on February 11, from Aleppo's Aynularab district. Earlier in the year, the group had kidnapped another 15-year-old boy and recruited him to its armed squad.

In 2022 alone, the organisation had inducted more than 1,200 kidnapped children into its armed squad. In its "Annual Children in Armed Conflicts" report for the January-December 2022 period, the United Nations (UN) announced that the terrorist organisation and its Syrian extensions, mainly the YPG, had deployed over 1,200 children as soldiers in 2022.

The report also noted that the PKK's Syrian branch, the SDF, had recruited 637 children, while the PKK/YPG and SDF-affiliated groups had recruited another 633 children.

In his assessment of the report, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, "I am extremely concerned about the use of children as soldiers. I invite them to stop using children as soldiers and for different purposes and to release all children in their ranks."